The lack of family-sized housing is one of the single biggest barriers to family formation [1] in Britain according to both new academic research and a major new poll of public attitudes.
Britain’s fertility rate is now at 1.41 which will lead to an historic population decline over time. A rate of 2.1 is needed for a population to simply remain stable without immigration.
The report by the demographer Lyman Stone of the Institute for Family Studies finds that Britons still want families of around two children, but that the housing market offers them small flats instead of family homes, and that the gap between the families Britons want and the families Britons get has never been wider.
Alongside the report, a new public-attitudes polling confirms the country is overwhelmingly behind the family-housing agenda.
Across eight areas covering family-sized homes, family-friendly planning and the experience of housing pressure, the public agrees by margins ranging from 30 to 72 points.